WHO THEY ARE

“C” You At The Movies was founded on the premise that entertainment provided from a movie theatre should not have to be constricted to the confines of an auditorium or the quality of a current feature. The five Northern Illinois locations in Antioch, Zion, McHenry and Libertyville include indoor and an outdoor theatre.

The “C” You At The Movies company mission states: “We realize that there exists a child in every one of our customers. It is our goal and privilege to help that child to smile during their visits with us and to keep them smiling long after the movie they came to see has ended.”

"C" You At The Movies

THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE

For “C” You At The Movies President Cynthia Kottke, the challenge has been to compete for their customer’s discretionary spending dollars. Her goal, to provide an entertaining, unique, family-friendly atmosphere, is standard from which all “C” You At The Movies’ ideas originate.

The business challenge includes effectively communicating with customers and gaining immediate, actionable feedback. The company relied on traditional newspaper advertising to talk to their customers. They found the one way communication lacked the feedback they desired.

General Operations Director Scott Dehn attended CyberLife Tutors’ series of “Social Networking for Business” classes and learned how business can create relationships with customers. Scott created a strategy and began implementing the new knowledge.

CAMPAIGN RESULTS

Scott says, “We have been very successful with our Facebook and building fans. We recently crossed over 9,000 fans on our page! The “C” You At The Movies Facebook page is a forum for events and announcement. Customers visit our page to comment and talk about their experiences at our theaters.”

The site even functions as a customer service branch for questions on movie times, upcoming shows and favorite movies.

Scott turned one challenge into an opportunity. “Issues such as monitoring for, and deleting businesses using our page to simply advertise for themselves has been problematic. However, I have taken that as a possible opportunity to reach out to those companies and inquire as to whether they would be interested in advertising with us on-screen. Policing the posts and keeping them civil can sometimes be difficult as well. I try to keep our pages family-friendly as a reflection of what our company is all about.”

SOCIAL MEDIA BENEFITS

I would have to say that anything that encourages feedback in an interesting, creative way has been most successful. Asking for opinions has been very helpful in getting the snowball of communication rolling.

My goal for 2011 is to dive into the world of Twitter and see where that takes us. This has been so much fun. I really enjoy the social networking part of my job. The benefits to our business are much more immediate and personal than those of your standard newspaper advertisements.

CYBERLIFE TUTORS BENEFITS

Class lessons you provided have really helped me to establish a plan of attack in our social networking.

Scott said. “I created one Facebook page for each of our theatre locations as well as one for the C You At The Movies, Inc. company. It is a total of 6 Facebook pages that collectively has earned over 10,000 “likes” at this point.“

SUMMARY

What is Scott’s advice to business owners?

“We have gained quite a following and it has been a lot of fun! I have some big plans to expand on this in 2011. Believe me, I tell everyone about the great experiences and benefits these classes have provided. I will let them know about the upcoming social networking class as well! I know many of them will be interested.”